A photographic tour of Paris in the spring

Want to brush up on your photography skills and tour one of Europe's most beautiful cities? You can do both at the same time, writes Cameron Newling.

Over the last couple of years my interest in photography has progressed from a passing hobby to a borderline obsession, where my main goal is to bankrupt myself buying the latest and greatest equipment. So when I discovered that French photographer Serge Ramelli, who I have followed on his YouTube channel for a number of years, was running a week-long workshop in Paris in the spring, I leapt at the opportunity.

This seemed like it would be a great experience as I would get to spend the week with him focusing on photography, without having to worry about the language barrier — my command of French vocabulary hasn't progressed beyond counting to ten, and saying "Bonjour".

After landing in Paris at 6am, and with zero sleep, I decided to kill time before checking into my hotel by walking to the famous Pont des Arts — famous for all the love locks, recently removed after a section of the bridge collapsing under their weight. Afterwards I headed to the Paris catacombs, a truly macabre use of abandoned limestone tunnels 19m beneath the city (and full of 6 million skeletons).

That evening, I met all the participants in Ramelli's workshop for the first time. On first appearances, I was a little concerned as I was the youngest person there by a good decade. "What would a 35-year-old Australian have in common with this mob"' I was thinking to myself. It turned out I had plenty – wine.

The first assignment was to photograph a nearby hotel hidden away in a dark alley, but had some nice lighting. Next we were to photograph the Pont Neuf at dusk. I thought it would all be over by 9pm and I could finally sleep off the jetlag. At 11.30pm it was still light — I was having microsleeps and kept accidently kicking other people's tripods. I was sure my companions were wondering who the drunk Aussie guy was. Finally it was dark, and I got the shot and headed to bed.

The itinerary for the second day was to shoot some of Paris's most famous landmarks. My plan for a great panoramic shot inside the Notre Dame kept getting ruined by a woman who kept standing in front of me and looking straight at me with a bewildered expression. I assumed I could Photoshop her out later (spoiler alert – I couldn't). After climbing a million steps to the top and taking shots across the city, we were then treated with a three-course lunch which ended with an awesome carb coma.

Ramelli spent the afternoon showing us post-processing tips and then we headed to the Eiffel Tower. It really doesn't become spectacular till it lights up (again at some ungodly hour), and I was able to get some truly memorable shots with no people photobombing this time.

After lunch on the third day, we visited the top of the Tour Montparnasse which is one of the tallest buildings in Paris. It was a great spot to take photos of the city at night, and they allow you to take tripods up (which is a rarity). Just be wary of tripod-kickers near you.

The next two days saw us take a bus to Saint Mont Michel, an island commune in Normandy. This was truly one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. To get the best photos we had to walk out on to the flats — also known as quicksand — in the dark. Ramelli assured us it would take 15 minutes to sink to your head so that gave us plenty of time to be rescued. It turned out to be worth it. I would also like to apologise to the hotel cleaner over the mess I made in the bathroom cleaning all the sand off my shoes and clothes at 3am.

The next day we went to Saint Malo, another fort-like city, before heading back to Paris. That evening we made our way through the streets to Montmartre and to photograph the Sacre-Coeur Basilica and try to avoid the hawkers selling everything from miniature Eiffel Towers to fake dog poo (both would make a memorable gift).

The Louvre

The final full day was a sunrise photoshoot from the Pont Alexandre III — except the sun failed to appear so it turned into a good excuse to make the photos black and white. Our final assignment was to shoot the Louvre at sunset, and to avoid being hushed away by security, who apparently get upset at the sight of tripods. Mission accomplished!

All in all it was a fantastic way to see Paris and spend some time with a great photographer and some really wonderful people who all share a common interest. Ramelli conducts these workshops every year in spring and I highly recommend it for anyone who has a passion for photography and who wants to see Paris with a true local.